I had completely mixed feeling about this book. One minute I was laughing out loud (I loved the part when the cat falls down the chimney and gets drop-kicked out the front door by the nast old lady neighbor), because there are some awfully funny bits, and the next I was feeling very awkward and wanted to escape this girl's terrible environment.
What is wierdly endearing though is how she seems to be blissfully unaware/unaffected by events any one of which would have caused me some emotional scarring as a small child (I had an admittedly sheltered, probably too sheltered childhood).

What this book did do for me though was make me feel like a better parent. At least my kids aren't sleeping in sleeping bags on the couch every night. On the other hand though, I do think that the message of this book is that no matter what Zippy's environment was like she did seem to know that her parents loved her.